Designing Women reunion highlights ATX programming for next year

The casts of two popular ’80s television series are reuniting at ATX Television Festival next year.

On Thursday, the Austin-based festival announced the cast and creator of CBS’ Designing Women will reunite for a special 30th anniversary panel. Stars Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart, Gerald McRaney, Hal Holbrook, and Douglas Barr will join creator and executive producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason for the event. The festival is also planning retrospectives for Bloodworth-Thomason’s Evening Shade and Hearts Afire.

The cast of the quirky CBS comedy-drama Northern Exposure will also get together at ATX next year. That panel will feature cast members Rob Morrow, John Corbett, Barry Corbin, Janine Turner, and Darren Burrows, creator Joshua Brand, writers Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, and network executive and producer Cheryl Bloch.

As for other programming: the “cancelled too soon” panels will feature NBC’s The Black Donnellys and ABC’s The Middleman. Creators Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, writer Amanda Moresco, and cast member Jonathan Tucker will be on hand for the former; and creator Javier Grill-Marxuach and star Natalie Morales are confirmed for the latter.